Section B: Key skills
3.1 Approaching Chapter title texts in their context How does context affect writers’ and speakers’ choice of language? What concepts are used to discuss context and language?
Context as spatial The most obvious definition of context is spatial – it is about physical location. In this sense, context affects the language we use in everyday life, not just in formal or professional writing. For example, most people make slightly different language choices when they are speaking at work than they do when speaking at home or in a social context.
Activity 1 What differences are there between how you speak in class and how you speak with your friends? Try to identify ways in which your speech is broadly different (e.g. in structure), as well as individual words and phrases that might be specific to each context.
Key terms dialect: a regionally specific non-standard variety of language, including accent, grammar and word variations from the standard variety (e.g. ‘I done it’) sociolect: a non-standard variety of language spoken by a particular social group
Other features of spatial context affect how people use language, too, such as whether or how well they know the person they are speaking to. People are more comfortable making certain language choices with those that they know well – for example: • •
informal word choices such as slang, dialect or sociolect missing words out (‘You ok?’ instead of ‘Are you ok?’).
Context in terms of audience, purpose and form Context is a combination of factors that exist outside the text, but which inform a text and might therefore inform your assessment of it. As such, it is important to consider context in the early stage of any text analysis. Context = location + audience + purpose + form + mode For more information on audience, purpose and form, see Chapter 2.
Activity 2 Copy and complete the table below to identify the audience and purpose of each of these texts.
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